Methods and systems for identifying the crossing of a virtual barrier

• US 10,482,321 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2017
• Issued: 11/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Kusens, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Soo Jin
• Application Number:
  US15/857,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20190205630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/08 Elderly
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0252 Load cells
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/046 in a matrix array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1115 Monitoring leaving of a patient support, e.g. a bed or a wheelchair
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1128 using image analysis A61B5/1127 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/12 Bounding box
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/73 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/103 Static body considered as a whole, e.g. static pedestrian or occupant recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training

Abstract

Systems, methods and media are disclosed for identifying the crossing of a virtual barrier. A person in a 3D image of a room may be circumscribed by a bounding box. The position of the bounding box may be monitored over time, relative to the virtual barrier. If the bounding box touches or crosses the virtual barrier, an alert may be sent to the person being monitored, a caregiver or a clinician.

Claims

1. A method of identifying the crossing of a virtual barrier, the method being performed by a computerized monitoring system and comprising:

receiving image data for a room from one or more 3D motion sensors;

configuring a virtual barrier within the room;

classifying an object within the room as a person;

creating a bounding box to circumscribe at least a portion of the person;

monitoring a position of the bounding box over time and relative to the virtual barrier; and

wherein upon detecting that at least a portion of the bounding box has touched or crossed the virtual barrier, initiating skeletal tracking, blob tracking, or a combination thereof to confirm the touching or crossing of the virtual barrier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual barrier is configured automatically by the computerized monitoring system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual barrier is configured by the computerized monitoring system based on input from a human user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending an alert to a computerized communication system upon detecting the bounding box touches or crosses the virtual barrier.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, upon receiving the alert, the computerized communication system notifies the person, a caregiver, or clinician that the virtual barrier has been crossed.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein an alert is sent to the computerized communication system only if a specified minimum portion of the bounding box crosses the virtual barrier.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the image data to a centralized monitoring station.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying human-intelligible images from the image data at the centralized monitoring station.

9. A system for identifying the crossing of a virtual barrier, the system comprising:

a computerized monitoring system in communication with one or more 3D motion sensors; and

a computerized communication system;

wherein the computerized monitoring system is configured to;

receive image data from the one or more 3D motion sensors;

configure a virtual barrier;

analyze the image data to create a bounding box around a person in the image data;

upon detecting that at least a portion of the bounding box has touched or crossed the virtual barrier, initiate skeletal tracking, blob tracking, or a combination thereof to confirm the touching or crossing of the virtual barrier; and

send an alert to the computerized communication system upon confirmation of the touching or crossing of the virtual barrier.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a user input device, wherein the computerized monitoring system is configured to configure the virtual barrier based on user input.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a centralized monitoring station configured to display human-intelligible images based on the data from the one or more 3D motion sensors.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the centralized monitoring station is configured to receive an alert from the computerized communication system, and, upon receipt of the alert, move the display of human-intelligible images to an alert display.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the virtual barrier is configured automatically by the computerized monitoring system.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the computerized monitoring system is configured to use biometrics to identify the person.

15. Non-transitory computer-readable media having embodied thereon instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, cause the processor to:

receive image data for a room from one or more 3D motion sensors;

configure a virtual barrier within the room, by a computerized monitoring system;

classify an object within the room as a person;

create a bounding box to circumscribe at least a portion of the person;

monitor a position of the bounding box over time and relative to the virtual barrier; and

wherein upon detecting that at least a portion of the bounding box has touched or crossed the virtual barrier, initiate skeletal tracking, blob tracking, or a combination thereof to confirm the crossing of the virtual barrier.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to accept user input to configure the virtual barrier.

17. The media of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to send an alert to a computerized communication system upon confirmation that the bounding box touches or crosses the virtual barrier.

18. The media of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to send another alert to the computerized communication system if all of the bounding box crosses the virtual barrier.

19. The media of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to send the image data to a centralized monitoring station.